1966 GTO 389 on the DYNO - Pontiac Points Problems 

On the Edelbrock Carb the choke is fully open. It seems slightly cloesed on video.

Car arrived safe and sound Nick! I have to thank Harry and Thorsons Enclosed Vehicle Transport for getting the Roadrunner home safely.

I would have thought with all the old iron you work on, you'd have a distributor machine. I loved those things back in the day. Mark your rotor, pull the complete distributor out and tune the dwell on the stand, then spin it up on the machine and see if the arrows hold steady throughout the RPM range. If the arrows started jumping around you knew you'd get a misfire in the car, so whatever it was needed to be fixed on the stand.

I really enjoyed watching this video, the old 389 acting cranky for Nick. I've worked on a few GTO's over the years, and sometimes they have done the same to me. It was a pleasure watching Nick sort out the issues, and finally get the engine running smoothly, and making some decent HP, with a basically stock setup. Back in the day I used to carry some matchbooks around with me, and also a nail file, that I could use in an emergency to gap, and file my points. The matchbook cover was about .017 which would put me in the ballpark on the dwell setting until I could put in a new set of points, and set the dwell with my meter. That little trick saved quite a few times when the points would fail, and leave you on the side of the road. George, this video was simply amazing, the music, production, and editing were all first class! I have watched a lot of videos on RU-vid, and nobody even come close to the quality of the videos on Nick's Garage

Nice. I own a 1969 Pontiac GP 455 Stroker (RHD) DownnUnder in Western Australia and DIG the hell out of it. Thanks for sharing your passion and workplace. A good setup you got there. Cool.

The 1966 GTO 389 was nice street engine.They respond well to ignition timing mods(Royal Bobcats distributor weights with lighten springs for quicker advancing of timing). Factory compression ratios were 10.75 to 1. Pontiacs always ran hot ! I had a 1966 GTO 4 speed and enjoyed it !

Nick , nice job on the “66 GTO. I worked on my 65 GTO from 1966 to 1980, including an engine rebuild I did myself. When you asked what’s the dwell on the points, I yelled out, “30” from Sunnyvale, CA, otherwise known as Silicon Valley‼️ I still have my dwell meter. I used it on all my hot rods. Thanks again for the great video . I too have gone in circles changing out old points, and installing new points that wouldn’t work. Drove me crazy. I hope to visit your shop someday . Keep up the great work. Thanks, Tom

I remember monkeying around with points just like that, only the engine was IN THE CAR. Now THAT was a pain in the😡😡😡. Aahhh, to be young again...

Nick I used to race the four barrel GTO's with my 66 Cyclone GT 390 and I had no problem beating them in the 1/4mile. I think they only had bout 315 hp. My Cyclone had a 4 speed in it. The tri-power GTO's could beat me but they had 360 hp.

I never had good luck with unitized points back in the day. Separate condenser seemed more reliable.

That Pontiac blue is one the prettiest engine colors ever used. Therir 75-77 metallic blue is really nice looking too, the heavy metallic really pops with all the angle on an engine.

I had a '67 GTO.....400 with a Q-Jet and Turbo 400 Trans. Hurst Dual Gate shifter. It was pretty fast. Had many options....A/C power everything and front disc brakes. I can only wish I had it today. Sold it for about $1000 back in the early 1970's.......!!!! Today that car could be worth 50K or more I think ! One reason I sold it was it had a bad oil leak from the rope seal. I pulled the engine and replaced the seal and the cam and lifters. Had many little problems with the car that made me want to sell it. Like I said I wish I had it today and I'd fix whatever problems it had...P.S. there is a neoprene seal available for them to get away from the rope I believe.....

10.25 is the perfect compression for these Pontiac engines with a good MSD ignition and the right combustion chamber set up you’ll get good power

Great video. This is exactly how I observed my Dad working in the garage on problems, with a positive attitude and a healthy mixture of fear and aggression. This is what it is all about: the journey!

Nick, love everything you do on your channel !!!!!! Not many Old School Guys like you around . I'm an ol Tin Indian Fan ,and love watching the ol Pontiac come to life.....I'm an ol 1970 GTO owner in my younger days ....brings back alots of memories.....Keep' em Running Nick ...God Bless You....

Oh! The one piece point condenser. Back about 1974 I had a neighbor who did a tune up on his car and for a week I noticed has car hadn't moved so I ask him what was up with the car? He told me about the tune up he did so I took a look and seen the new one piece points condenser. I had run into this problem in the passed so I asked him what he did with his old points. He came up with them and they were not one piece. Installed them and it fired right up. Lol. The one piece points set were all junk.

Good morning Nick , good ole points , people ask me if I remember using a dwell meter and I just smile and say it's been awhile . Since i work on all year models I still keep the knowledge lol on the older setups. Using the petronix point replacement is great , I have used them on an old Farmall tractor. Thank you for working as hard as you do to bring us such a great video. Take care and keep a thrashing . 👍

I was ready to throw a wrench in your honor Nick. It actually helps me when you encounter a PITA job. But you never give up! As I said last week…”One week closer to vacation!” Hope you all have a good week.

Yes sir it did and a good friend of mine had one in a manual. He took the 389 out kept it and he put a built 400 in it. He passed away from bladder cancer and she sold of his collection of stuff and I don't know what the Son got if anything. God bless you all and have a great day tomorrow.

I've watched everyone of Nicks videos and have never seen him so frustrated! Gives a guy flashback to the bad old points days! Uncle Tony can keep them as far as I'm concerned. Back in the day the first thing I would do to a GM engine was install an HEI distributor and be loving life!!

I really liked the 1966 GTO, my Aunt had a 1965, another one I liked

I went to school with a girl who's father gave her a 67 Pontiac GTO, 389 Tri Power. That car still had the original paint. Beautiful Ride.

First thing I did when I inherited my Grandma's 1968 Lemans with only 27,000 miles in 1993, electronic ignition.

Good morning Nick, oh yeah some Pontiac power on the dyno.

I had a 66 GTO with a 389 4 in the floor when I was 17 that was in 1972. It was gold and had white bucket seats and black carpet and I absolutely loved that car. Hey Nick I forgot to tell you that I bought a 65 Dodge Dart GT and I’m very excited to have an A body. I can’t wait to get it running and driving since it’s been sitting in a garage the last 15 years.

The guy who rebuilds your carbs does a fantastic job, it looks like new and probably works like new too. It's called pride in your work and going the extra mile to be the best.

In the mid 70's I had a 66 GTO but went with an Accel ignition, Crower 3/4 cam, .060 TRW pistons, Hooker Headers and a 4:11 posi with a 2:20 Muncie 4 speed. Best time on Goodyear F70-14 was 13.90s close to 110. Love your channel.

Distributor machines are nice to set them up and make sure they are perfect before going on the engine. I've never had a problem with points ignition. Most of the time a new set of Blue Point points are correctly set right out of the box.

I own a 66 tempest. Bought when I was 19. I'm 54 now..still love it..still drive it.. Has a 406 CI ..400 out i Of a 76 grand Prix freshened up block...th 400 trans. Runs 12 s On motor..set up for spray.. Stock bottom end forged pistons. I built the motor over 18 year's ago..street raced track raced .. sprayed..a bunch 210 shot...👍👍👍

Nick please remember even when you replace points with new ones you have to thoroughly clean the contacts with lint-free paper and lacquer thinners

Had the same experience with the points in my 68 firebird 350, swapped it out for a HEI unit, night and day difference

This was a really great episode Nick. Because there are days like those. When I was a kid they had a Sun distributor machine. Points float- I love Petronics- problem solved

My 389 was the best engine I ever had. My brother's 65 GTO was the same. Start 1st time, never smoked and ran perfectly.

Reminds me of the 326 of my brothers 67 firebird.His brother in law Steve Bachman rebuilt it back in 83 and let me help on assembly.That was my first time understanding how they worked.Made me a mechanic.Steve was a well known street racer back in the day around Sterling park in Virginia.Hes a mentor to me.

My father bought a 1969 Gto brand new for 2600 Dollars RIGHT FROM THE DEALER IN FORT KENT MAINE WHEN HE GOT OUT OF VIETNAM 400 SMALL BLOCK I BELIEVE, VERY NICE-MOTOR YOU HAVE THERE NICK DANG AWESOME

I had a “65” GTO Convertible 4 speed, I loved,it was taken from me by a drunk driver who slammed into me as I waited at a railroad crossing for a train to pass. Your video brings back a lot of memory’s I had with my then girlfriend now my wife of 44 years! Wish I still had that car! To your testing, it sounds like your starter needs to be shimmed a bit,it’s binding on the flex plate/ flywheel.

Hey Nick where the same age I was born in 56 when I was always stationed at Camp Pendleton I bought mine platoon sergeant 72 Pontiac formula 400 the motor blew a few months later went to the Salvage yard picked up a 389 bought it out 40 over for a cool radiator Edelbrock intake carburetor what is screamer this car was an idle the fenders would rock back-and-forth nobody wanted to race me even the Corvettes when I was down in Vista California Friday nights all the Hot Rodder‘s would show up drove it all the way back to Rhode Island when I get out of the Marine Corps this brought back some memories thank you

I bet the condenser on the new points is junk if you took the condenser off the old points and put it on the new ones it will work. There have been many new condensers that are junk and I bet that is what is going on with the ones your using

all my years of being a mechanic nick its so hard to do is just walk away come back the next day i have spent hours working on something that's or should be really simple walk away go back the next morning and fix it in 5 minutes i remember old timers telling me many times to do that i have learned it works for me unbelievable done it many times i think we get so aggravated it gets to the mind. just walk away go back the next day

I've seen a properly rebuilt rochester quadrojet have more jump in it than a dual line carb! Old GTO owner of quite a few old goats!!!

Had a 73 catalina with a 400 that used to eat points. Kept a spare pre-set uni-sets in the glove compartment with a flashlight and some tools. Have the girlfriend hold the light. Great vid. Took me back to the old days. I guess us old guys remember some of this old tech. Thanks

Nick, back in the early 1970's here in the UK I worked at a Ford main dealer and at that time we only had points to work with on 99% of cars that came into the shop for tuning. Some distributors even had dual points. I used to do all the electronic engine tuning using a Sun Tester 1120 machine (a ground breaking piece of kit in those days). Common problems with new sets of points were: (A) Caused by not wiping the anti corrosion oil film off the contact faces. (B) Having a poor earth on the distributor base plate (the points screw down directly onto the base plate) which would cause a voltage drop. (C) Poorly aligned contact faces - more common than you think. (D) Lack of grease on the distributor cam lobes causing the points heel to wear away thus closing the points gap. (E) Excessive distributor shaft side play causing the points gap to alter or scatter as we called it as the engine climbed the rev range. (F) Incorrect points dwell angle which can effect (lower) the coil output KV and finally, condenser failure. This can cause arcing/burning across the points face or even a non start situation. Properly installed and gapped (dwelled) points were usually good for at least 6000 miles! P.S. I would pay a tidy some for a half decent 1120 machine to use on my classics! Great channel. DP

Surprised it didn't have the trip power on it it was the one I think was advertised at that? Been so long and I can't remember. I am surprised that Nick doesn't know, he is the walking encyclopedia of knowledge that he has forgotten more than most people know. God bless and keep on your mission Nick! You are a great treasure of my generation.

my 65 gto had 2 1/4 inch exhaust manifolds from the factory Nick.

Nick, Pontiacs are notorious for being under cammed by most builders. Raising the compression and keeping the cam that tame builds way too much cylinder pressure, aka: heat. Also the reason they eat starters, and you get the hard start issue. They don't have the best for cooling, as there are modifications i do that help a lot in these situations. Those exhaust manifolds are actually a Ram Air 3, 4 into 1 manifold. They are not standard stock exhaust manifolds. Hence the bigger collector. A stock exh. Manifold is 2.250". They also offer those "long branch" RA3 manifolds cnc ported. They work. Same style as the round port RA4. FYI, never offered on a 389. They are available aftermarket. The best tool in a pinch for points? A matchbook. Will get you running every time. Those stock Carter AFB carbs are tough to work with, but as a rated they are 500-550cfm. They do not actually flow that. In comparison, the Tri-power carbs are rated at 750cfm, from all three 2 barrels. Nice job. Actually just got done with a supercharged 440 going in a 70 cuda. Up on my instagram.. and here you are doing a Pontiac, my personal choice of race engines. @jrd_motorsports

My family’s first car was a Pontiac Catalina, 1967 model year. It included new technologies like disc brakes and electronic ignition. My mother said the ignition failed on a trip when the car was new, and stranded them while the Pontiac dealer located a replacement ignition module.

Toss the points, my 69 gto had a dual point set up when i got it yrs ago. First thing was adding an hei then an msd ignition later.

Thanks for keeping it real, by showing how frustrating things can get.

This video is very important. Because it shows even the best can have headaces with even simple fixes.

I thought when your flashlight didn't want to come on that you were fixing to beat the hell out of it!

I've always liked the 66-67 GTO and the other similar GMs with that same body style along with Pontiacs engine color and factory dress up kit,it's pretty sharp imo. Perseverance Panaritis at it once again and as usual it truly pays off in the long run! Great job guys,thank you again.

Those are factory exhaust manifolds, but not for that engine. They appear to be Ram Air manifolds that came out a few years later.

Got a Couple of the OLD MOTOR Manuals , Still Love them !

Reminds of the days at Dragway 42 watching the GM guys fooling with their ignitions at the track😂😂😂

I had a 73 GTO with a 400, a pin hole in the oil filter on the way home from work cost the 400. I put a 1968, 389 out of a Catalina, with the turbo 400 behind it, this ran better than the original. yep it had points, but I had a set of angled and narrow tipped feeler gauges.. Made me think what a pain they were until I got those bent feelers... Thanks man I grew up with points, I still think they throw a meaner spark than the electronic stuff.... thanks and great vid

I remember cruising in my buddy's father's 66 Goat when it was brand new with this same engine. It was an automatic with a "TempestTorque" 2 speed A/T (aka; Powerglide). A white hardtop with gold roof and interior. I thought it was SOOO gorgeous

In 166 I used to be able to beat 4 barrel 389's with my 390 hp 335 hp and 4 speed. I bought the Comet for $3224.00 brand new in the spring of 1966.

389hp would taker a bit of head porting and smoothing of intake transitions maybe a bit of David vizard type tweaking ,love video sweet build

350HP NICK, 66 GTO WAS A FAVORITE OF MINE ,the year I graduated high school!

I had a 65 GTO with a 400 in it, I bought the car after my brother passed away in 83. He had a 65 GTO when he was in the Marines in Viet Nam, after he was wounded and paralyzed from upper chest down, my Dad had to sell it. Having always had SBC/BBC I was disappointed in performance, should have kept car and put a BBC in it. Sold car more because it only seemed to add to grieving process I was going thorough at the time. Would love to see what Nick could do with this motor with Alum heads, decent cam and induction. Can't beat seeing an engine on the dyno, figures don't lie!

The starter concern was possibly from a repeated hot soaking condition Pontiac and heat was a big concern.The starter was so close to the exhaust that they would overheat and cause them to draw too high of a current through the stator windings when they got hot. The heat shield was very important on these things and none of the backyard wrenchers would put them back on. Brings me back to the 80's and early 90's and work at a Pontiac dealer as a tech. I had a 66 GTO and 3 other parts cars. . I never dynoed it but I had a 400 cu inch from a 1968, a Crane Cam with a Doug Nash Dual Quad manifold and 2 Carter AFB 425 CFM carbs. Headers, 2&1/2 exhaust, Muncie M20 trans and a 4:11 Detriot locker rear axle - a rat rod yeah, but man what fun that car was as a kid. Love seeing all the classics.😃

Why not replace the mechanical points with a Hall effect replacement. Can’t see them so it will not matter. Will be dependable.

I' tried a petronics in my 71 460 and it failed a few dats later, so I went back to points and had no issue with them for 15 years of intermittent summer driving. I rebuilt a 390 T bird engine and installed a new set of points and could not spark time it. Further investigation revealed the points were slightly oxidized so after a quick clean up the engine ran perfect and still has the same points that were installed 3 years ago.

Another Monday morning and watching my favorite channel with Nick and crew! A great way to rev up my MoPar brain!

Good afternoon folks. I really loved my 66 gto. It had a 74 400 2bbl from a Catalina when I bought it. I put 455 heads on it and a nasty cam, boy did that old goat go.... I haven't read all the comments, but am I the only one that noticed the exhaust manifolds on that beautiful beast? They didn't make too many of that style.

I've always thought they were more than 335hp factory,I remember my chevy 2 getting its doors blew off by one back in the day.

That paint job looks better than factory! I don't think it came out of a can. Those old Pontiac engines were bad about the timing chain jumping. I fixed several and I was working at a Ford dealer. I think the 66GTO is one of the prettiest cars ever made.

I am 71 and had a few early 1964 - 1967 GTO's and the exhaust manifolds on this are out of a 1967 GTO. I ran all the oem type carburetor combinations, including the Rochester Q-Jet. The AFB was a 625 cfm version from what I could tell at the beginning. In the end it was a AVS type, which is a good version of these. They never came on Pontiacs though. The 66 Tri-Power gave the best performance when setup correctly. Unless I am missing something, the single points should work well with enough dwell. This engine barely saw 5,000 rpm, not 6 or 7,000 rpm. We had setups in SBC's going to 7,900 rpm. I am not impressed on what I saw here...

I had a friend my senior year in high school in 1979 that found a 1966 4sp trip-carb GTO in his drive way one day and discovered the keys in his house. His older brother had purchased the GTO at auction in Bristol VA where the story was the car had had every conceivable performance modification done to it over the years by the owner's mechanic, but upon the mechanic moving to northern Virginia the owner had elected to have the car returned mostly to stock for auction. One issue was on its last rebuild the replacement clutch was the wrong part requiring the car to be put back together with the old slipping clutch. The car's mechanic would be willing to replace the clutch free of charge once he was reestablished in Northern VA. I've now concluded this GTO was very much not stock. We took it out and it was almost out of gas and knew a car like this needed high grade premium so I had us go to a Sunoco and get the highest grade gas they had. Upon leaving the gas station may friend opened it up and I counted seconds and got to 4.5 to 60 mph, BUT I'd started at 1 not zero so it got to 60 in about 3.5 seconds. The car had rear tires that were about 10.5 inch wide and almost that tall. It would rev very well to about 4500 RPMs where is would become wide. At 5000 RPM it was like there was something alive trying to get out. Full power was probably about 6300 RPM. My friend would shift it about 6500 rpm, but once he said he missed it and it raved to 7,000 rpm. The car would push its rear axle down when under hard acceleration causing it to grip the pavement. Because of that with the tires the car had it could likely accelerate faster than 1G. There was one situation I remember in particular when my friend was driving the GTO and suddenly floored it and got the gear shift just right and we went from about 45 mph to 75 mph pushing my back into the frame of the seat flattening the springs that were there in something a little over a second. This was scaring because in Marrifield VA when they rebuilt the roads the cross roads at intersections had an extreme high crown that was hard to take at 30 mph and we were at 80 mph. My friend later took me for a ride where he intentionally came up on an intersection at 80 mph, back off the throttle then hit it hard to lift the nose the car over the crown with the rear suspension almost locked using the side walls of the tires to take the brunt of the impact and the car was surprisingly composed. The GTO was really slipping the clutch and as per the agreement my friend's brother took it into the mechanic to replace the clutch. I asked about the car and my friend said the mechanic was working on it at night. A few days my friend said the GTO and the mechanic had disappeared. Later he said the shop said they thought the mechanic was running drugs. It didn't sound perusable and I was thinking about having my dad call up the shop to see what was going on. A couple months later my friend said that two police detectives showed up at his house asking about the GTO which they referred to as the BLUE CAR. In turned out that the police were running a sting operation and the GTO had been key to the drug cartel (but maybe they weren't) getting away with $80.000 cash, which had been given out so quickly non of the serial number or marking protocols were followed and if it was not recovered a lot of important people were going to loose their jobs. It is a full length motion picture of how the GTO had the organization got away with it involving psyching out the police. By the end of the car chases some 50 police cars had been damaged, 1/3 were totaled, another 1/3 had to be towed for repair, and the other 1/3 were drivable, but not up to patrolling. I have to think the ability of that car to get over the high crown of cross roads in Norther Virgina played a part in the car getting away. At the end the detectives said the police were so hypnotized in trying to get the blue car the commander said to pull into a safe area and LET THE BLUE CAR GO. And they did. My friend went on for about 90 minutes on this story the police detectives told him. I'm guessing that GTO was likely running a big forged crank shaft. That would give the 389 about 460 ci displacement and allow it to rev high along with a performance cam. The exhaust was routed to exit just a head of the rear tires. There was the story from the auction that is was one of the last Pontiac street race cars. I noticed the front fenders seemed to be very thin,, but hard metal. I remember being pinned to the seat frame against my back as the car accelerated compressing the seat back springs. The sound that engine made as it went from 4500 rpms to 5000 rpms was like an animal wanting to get out. At 5000 rpms to 6700 rpms where my friend would shift it was hard to breath. After a while you didn't try. The report over the police radio on the sting operation from the operative was that the car had just disappeared. The cops where chasing it in crazy manic fashion because they wanted to catch it before it disappeared again. The $80,000 was police money and it had not been check out under normal procedure because of the perpetrates rushing the operation. We've never heard anything more about that 1966 trip-carb GTO.

Hey it made 335 H.P. with a reduced Comp.Ratio on unleaded fuel - not too shabby !👍🏁🐒

Wow love the Pontiac stuff takes me back to my child hood in the garage with my Dad and his Pontiacs which he still has

Nick, set the dwell by turning the engine over by the starter and using the Allen wrench to adjust the dwell without starting

Nick i know you know this trick, use a small piece of a manilla folder to gap your points it's perfect to get you running! Then you can adjust, i was really suprised that you did not go that route, your old school and i just know that you know these old tricks, by the way love your show, my passion is the 65-70 impala fat blocks, keep up the fine work, oh your Kowalski is the legend lives, go nick!.

I guess in this day and age of electronic ignitions the distributor curve machine doesn't exist anymore. They used to be in every performance shop, we had one in our high school auto shop that really helped with setting up ours.

I have used a matchbook to set points in the past learned that from an old timer.

Back in the day I never used feeler gauges on point adjustment for any of the manufacturer's cars. I would crank the engine with the dwell meter hooked up and adjust them while cranking.

Heat kills electronics, I had a 65 pontiac bonnivlle and loaned out to a friend to tow his car, he overheated the motor so bad the spark plug wire melted on the plugs. I changed oil and plugs, replace radiator and engine ran like it never happened, great motor.

Lord,I love that Road Runner! Beautiful!

You are the best.. You take time to explain thing simply and mail room is great to.. Keep up the great work by do

Nothing better than to hear the sound of a V8

If I remember right the Pontiac’s carter afb at that time had a small vacuum device called a dash pot on a small bracket that was adjustable in place of an idle screw. The hole in the boss that would have held the idle screw was not threaded. Used to toss the dash pot in the trash take a tap to that hole and problem solved. I believe that big screw between mixture screws was accessory vacuum adjustment not idle. But I might be smokin dope. Don’t remember for sure.

Whoa! What's up with the Yellow Fury? Many of these Moms grocery getters came with 383 and 440s'. I had a 70 Road Runner did the same crap. But at least with Plymouth’s you could use a feeler gauge. These GMs know you’re a MOPAR guy, payback….

The 1966 Pontiac GTO 389 cu in with a single carter 4 bbl. had a 10.5:1 compression ratio. Where as the 389 cu in with tri-power (3-2 bbl) had a 10.75:1 compression ratio. I had a 1966 GTO with 389 cu in, with (3-2bbl) 360 hp. I put 80,000 miles in 4 years on that car. I had a blast with my GTO.

One of the best days of my life was when I switched to an electronic ignition. That was painful to watch.

In the early 80's I sold auto parts, going town to town calling on all the shops, each shop had an igintion cabinet full of points, rotors, caps, condesors etc. As a salesman you would go through the cabinet take inventory and then tell the owner what he needed for stock. Most shops kept 5-10 sets of GM points, as these were most popular and needed to be changed the most, and the ones the tech struggled with. As a sales guys the money was in the igintion cabinet. Once electronics came in within a very short time this was all gone, as electronics were much better and needed less maintenance. Seeing Nick have issues with GM points doesn't surprise me at all

Watching you guys it's like watching a young nick working with the real nick. Nice work leo

nothing rarely goes the the way you want it to ..but thats all part of engine building...you figured it out in the end ...good work nick..

I changed several points on ny ford 390, couldn't afford electronic ignition back then, that was the good old days.

I was a fifth generation high plains country boy who grew up with a dwell meter and a set of straight leaf feeler gauges. I raced Pontiac 389, 400, and 455 motors in a mid-sixties Catalina on 3/8 dirt circle track strictly stock absolutely with Wesleyan ingenuity, honesty, and integrity. I used Reagan era American made parts and tools. I don't recall my cars never starting or not running exceptionally better than my competition. Waiting for this clown show to end was absolute torture. However, my guess is that this production is a metaphor for never ending NAFTA failures This production reveals a poignant end to dominant American performance exceptionalism. Thank you Nick Panaritis. You have confirmed my understanding that past American made products and their constituencies were once significantly greater performers.

Gotta love them ol Ponchos!! Please Nick, gotta get one of those in a 6bbl on the dyno. I know it's been done before, but your camera work is superb!!

The dwell on the points is the key to getting the point distributor to work properly, 19.5 degrees gives the best response.

Good evening Nick and George from Melbourne, Australia :)

All I used to use for points were Standards Blue Streak or Napa brand points.

I believe I would put the 750 Holley on it because you just can't beat a holley

I had a chevelle ss that I pulled the engine, and put in a Jasper short block and had the heads ground and seated at a shop. Put it all together and set everything and it would not turn over because my friend was helping me and he put the fly wheel on backwards. I pulled the tans and put it back together and it started on the first try. I was happy.

You did a great job on the A-12 car she's a beauty you looked good drivjng that car like you were going to race somebody if you had to lol!

My sisters friend Russ Adams in Royal Oak worked at Royal Pontiac . I brought him a large carter thermo quad. Love those secondary’s. Timings is off it’s groaning

The points made today are junk compared to the old stuff even ask uncle Tony he has had lot's of issues with points lately I guess since not many cars use them anymore they lowered their quality on making a good part but the points are not the only issue the condenser are junk lot's of times too

First Car was a 61 Pontiac Bonneville. 2nd Car New 1964 GTO Convertible Yellow. 389 360 HP 4spd with Trips. 3rd Car was New 1965 GTO Red 4sp with Trips. Brother bought a 1970 Blue GTO Judge, 4spd 400 HP I believe, All 389 Engines. Every couple of Months, Points, Plugs, Condenser and playing with the carburetor. Burn a tank of gas Friday Night; Saturday Night and fill up for work the other 5 days. Gas was 17.9 to 24.9 cents a gallon in Detroit, normally using Shell 95 Octane or Sunoco 260. Lots of Memories but we drove the cars in those days. Always working on our cars.

Hang in there Nick! Been there, done that too! Even ran a dual point Mallory, it was a real headache! That GM design was a great improvement over what it replaced. Went to Mallory first gen electronic system (Unilite?) They were a pain too!